Likewise, Identity Crisis was an intriguing murder myster (something we don’t see enough of in comics these days) which had something interesting to say on the whole “how do superheroes punish the bad guys” question. It helped bring a needed popularity boost to C- and D-List characters and shake-up the status quo in how all the A-List heroes worked together.

In a sane world, Identity Crisis would have been resolved as it was. But the follow-up would have been 53, a new JLA roster, and a few new solo books featuring the newly re-popularized C- and D-List heroes or the diversity legacies: Jamie Reyes, Kate Kane, etc.

But, once again, we see it get pushed too far. The whole Brother Eye / Omac / Bat-Dick storyline that grew from the seeds planted here. It didn’t bear fruit, it was just the Rot.

Assorted Problems with DC's Identity Crisis:

1) The "shocking death" at the beginning was anything but. DC publicized "someone close to the classic League was going to be murdered." Which meant there were exactly two candidates: Sue Dibny and Snapper Carr. And no one would care if Snapper died, ergo, it was going to be Sue. I told my comics dealer this months in advance, and he cursed me for being so right.

2) Jean's motives were nuts. There are ways for ex-spouses to get back together. As an attorney, she probably encountered a few.

3) The totally f--ked up back story about Doctor Light and Sue Dibny. I'm not a prude. I can deal with adult crimes in comics. That said, the sequence made zero sense. The whole notion of Sue regularly hanging out on the Justice League Satellite was a retcon. Between Justice League of America #78 (vol. 1), and Justice League of America Annual #3 it didn't happen. Not as published. The Justice League DID have a standing order that a League member be on Monitor Duty at all times. They may have let it slide on occasion and left no one there. But they certainly didn't leave a civilian alone on the satellite. (Note, when they left Snapper on Monitor Duty in #200, it was with the understanding that they still recognised his honorary member status.) So, this makes the Light raped Sue subplot one that should have had far MORE ramifications than the ones we saw in story.

4) Deathstroke the Mary Sue vs the Justice League of America. That fight is so, so, so awful. It ignored every bit of development of powers that Wally had gone through in his own book. It ignored how Hawkman's powers work. It failed to keep the comic book science consistent between panels during the Atom fight. The part with bagging Black Canary made no sense. And, most egregiously it had Kyle Rainer, who had by then spent YEARS battling bad guys with giant green energy constructs, decide to move into melee range with someone with Aquaman level strength and Batman level martial skill.

5) It rather blatantly ignored that in the post-Crisis continuity Superman and Batman hadn't shared the civilian identities with the Justice League until JLA (the late '90s-2000s series) #50.

6) The key discovery was revealed in a different title.

7) There was no resolution, other than Atom quietly having his ex-wife committed (without a court order or a trial) to the WORST asylum in the country.

8) Firestorm's really, really stupid death.

9) It smacked of "Dan Didio has a hit-list, and this story is meant to get rid of them."

Last edited by Ken on Sun Jun 03, 2018 10:22 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I can’t disagree with any of those points and fully agree with all of them. Identity Crisis has it’s fair share of flaws, missteps, and facepalm worthy moments. But my point wasn’t that Identity Crisis on its own was the cause of “the Rot” that set in at both Marvel and DC around this time. It was a symptom, not the source.

If DC has gone a different direction with their metaplots in the years that followed — away from the Rot’s “We don’t like superheroes in our superhero stories.” direction and in a more “Superheroes can have flaws, but they’re still heroic. Good always wins in the end.” direction — then I think we’d be able to look back at Identity Crisis more fondly.

In a vacuum Identity Crisis is an above average story for a company-wide crossover event comic. I give it a generous 3.5 out of 5, but that may be because I’m predisposed to like superhero detective stories. Being one of the few company-wide crossover event comics that doesn’t revolve around a hero vs. hero brawls or an easily resolved alien invasion make it a 2.5 out of 5, minimum.

1) Where the frag did Jean Loring get a spare size-changing belt!? Was Ray Palmer THAT careless about just leaving around his signature gadgetry-weapon, like in the spare cabinet? Or did she get one in the divorce settlement? And for that matter...did the editors just forget everybody except the Atom risks BLOWING UP when they return to normal size?

2) Ms. Loring was the one who wanted the divorce because Ray wasn't managing his life well-he was a minor league JLA member but neglected his home life and academic career in favor of hanging out with them.

3)There was no way for readers to deduce the villain of the mystery, because she was written utterly out of character, had weapons and gadgets the character had no reasonable way of possessing, and somehow left no clues even when she grew back to full-size and used a flamethrower inside a house. Not to mention the whole "crazy = evil and dangerous" thing which really is offensive, speaking as someone who used to work with psychiatric patients.

4) Since when was Arthur Light a sex criminal? Like ever? And why were readers expected to think what the JLA did was unreasonable? I was rooting for Hawkman to just split Dr. Light's skull with his mace!

(Note: I'm not in favor of brainwashing/lobotomizing normal criminals, or vigilante justice in the real world-but only by four-color logic does NOT killing or otherwise eliminating super-sociopaths like Luthor or the Joker make sense, and [ii]Identity Crisis[/i] cast four-color by the wayside).

1) Where the frag did Jean Loring get a spare size-changing belt!? Was Ray Palmer THAT careless about just leaving around his signature gadgetry-weapon, like in the spare cabinet? Or did she get one in the divorce settlement? And for that matter...did the editors just forget everybody except the Atom risks BLOWING UP when they return to normal size?

The whole thing about Ray and his equipment got screwed up in the early 1990s in Suicide Squad. When Ray gave Adam Cray a spare belt, and there were people being shrunk pretty regularly without blowing up.

The best part was the "Super Friends vs the Suicide Squad" issues, but even then, it didn't really clean up the mess.